Vancouver Island Chapter

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

The VI Fleet is lucky to continue to welcome new members as the season progresses and we did so on February 9 when Siggi and Johanne Kemmler joined us for a look at safety gear and sail repair and maintenance. But not until we had volunteers for March (the Hiscocks) and April (Marina Steele & […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

Our meeting this month started with a lengthy list of announcements as the group sorts out several activities targeting the cruising season this year. Philip and Michelle Cook volunteered to present February’s Show and Tell before Werner Kurz and Sarah Beukema told us about the many advantages of having their Motorola T600 “Talk About” walkie […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

We had 24 sailors in attendance for the Vancouver Island Fleet meeting on November 16. The topic, Medical Preparations for Offshore, is always in high demand and there is always lots of material to cover (even without COVID-19 to consider). We are gifted on the Island to have Dr. Catherine Ascah with her history in […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

On September 29, the B.C.A. V.I. Fleet & Weather groups got a good start on the year though our numbers are still a little hard to settle as we had Zoom visitors from Vancouver and Calgary at this session. Best guess is somewhere around 18 V.I. folks so it looks like we are on our […]

K. Barrie Letts

BC Parks has been receiving complaints of boats over 11 meters (36 feet) using the docks in Marine Parks. Larger boats may be able to use the mooring buoys or may be able to anchor subject to availability and restrictions in each park. There is limited information available for boaters on the BC Parks website. […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

The final BCA V.I. Fleet meeting of the 2020/21 season was held virtually on April 14. After announcing the cancellations of various BCA events due to the current pandemic conditions, Brent Alley opened a discussion evaluating Mobile Hot Spots. He discussed their purposes, options and the advantages of several of the devices available. We then […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

On March 11, the Zoom meeting of the Vancouver Island Fleet group focussed on safety devices with a presentation and discussion lead by Dan Bieller from Pacific Coast Liferaft. Prior to this James Graham presented the Heylo heat retention cooking bag as a Show & Tell item. Dan then discussed the appropriate sizing and style […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

Any doubts about the effectiveness of a virtual platform to host a tri-chapter Fleet meeting were thoroughly dispelled Thursday night (January 14). The topic of navigation device choices was addressed with special attention to Open CPN, a mature, open-source Chart Plotter Navigation program. After Daragh Nagle discussed the broader topic of devices and systems available […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

Any doubts about the effectiveness of a virtual platform to host a tri-chapter Fleet meeting were thoroughly dispelled Thursday, January 14. The topic of navigation device choices was addressed with special attention to Open CPN, a mature, open-source Chart Plotter Navigation program. After Daragh Nagle discussed the broader topic of devices and systems available to […]

This year has offered us a unique opportunity to take the time to prepare our boats for that offshore adventure. Participating in the Vancouver Island Chapter’s Fleet and Weather group may assist you in gathering the knowledge and experience to confidently set sail on your dream cruise when the pandemic becomes a thing of the […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

Due to concerns regarding imminent surgery scheduling, we arranged for Al to lead discussions from March 4-15 with V.I. Fleet members on the topics of Weather Routing and the Paperwork of Clearing In & Out of Foreign Lands. The audience included 3 of the 6 new members who have joined V.I. Fleet recently and we […]

Al Kitchen – VI Fleet Coordinator

If you are a sailor who does not have a fond memory of a dock side Potluck Feast with a crowd of like-minded adventurers, you need to get out more! It seems we all enjoy eating as much as we like sailing and on February 5 twelve members of the Vancouver Island Fleet group heard […]